Page 88 of The Triple Threat

His hand came up and with his forefinger, he pushed a lock of my hair behind my ear and then trailed the same finger down my cheek. We inhaled simultaneously and something more than sexual chemistry passed between us. I didn’t know what had changed, why my feelings toward him had moved on, but they had.

“I know you’re scared, El, but you must realize that we have something here,” Hunter said, his eyes narrowed on me. “Maybe this has been brewing for a while, and maybe we’ve gone about it all the wrong way, but I’d like it if we could go on a date. I want to take you to the pre-Christmas Dance at the Memorial Buildings on Saturday.”

My eyes widened. “You want to take me to the dance?”

Hunter shrugged. “Well, I think we’re way past a drink in a bar, don’t you?”

His smile was bright and made his eyes twinkle and I felt a traitorous little whoosh in my stomach.

“I guess. But absolutely everyone will be there, my parents, your dad, Mayor Garrison. Everyone.”

“I know,” Hunter replied, the reverberation of his deep voice filling me with unwanted excitement. “Which surely proves I’m serious. If I thought it was going to be a one off, or doomed for failure do you really think I’d take you to the most important night in the town’s social calendar?”

He was right, it surely did, but I still couldn’t help thinking that this was not the Hunter I knew. The Hunter Delaney I knew loved them and left them and had done so many times.

“You know that if we did and, and well things didn’t work out, it’d cause one hell of a ruckus.”

“Who says it won’t work out?” Hunter asked, exasperation in his tone.

Watching him carefully, the words he wanted to hear almost spilled from my mouth, but I just couldn’t. I cared too much for him to lose him as a friend, or to make life uncomfortable for everyone.

Noticing my hesitancy, Hunter sighed. “You do, don’t you? You don’t think it’ll work.”

“I’m sorry, Hunter. But you know, maybe a little bit of this is you wanting what you can’t have.”

“Seriously, you think I’m that shallow?”

I stalled again and this time his nostrils flared, and fire lit up his eyes.

“Well, you do seem to like my girls a little too much.”

As soon as I said it, Hunter’s eyes dropped to my boobs which were pushing against the thin top of my PJs.

“See.”

“You were the one who pointed them out,” he argued, pointing at them. “I’m a guy, of course I’m going to look at them if you mention them.”

“You could have fought the urge.” I put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at him.

“Ah, now you’re just doing that on purpose.” He groaned and scrubbed a hand down his face. “You can’t mention titties and then push them out like that, Ellie. It’s just not damn fair.”

“Well tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you don’t think about them more than you think about me.”

“Of course, I don’t,” Hunter affirmed, shaking his head. “Anyway, it’s impossible. It’s like thinking of peanut butter and not jelly or thinking about Kelly Ripa and not Ryan Seacrest; you just don’t do it.”

“Well,” I said, leaning closer and dropping my voice. “I don’t automatically think of your huge whang when I think of you.”

Of course, it was a lie. Any mention of Hunter and memories of his beautiful big dick were at the forefront of my mind.

Hunter grinned and put his hands to hips.

“You don’t need to frame it,” I sneered. “I know it’s there.”

“Oh, I know you do, and now I know you think of it often. Well, I kind of like that.”

I rolled my eyes and waved him away. “You’re missing the point, Hunt. I know if you and I start dating you’ll soon realize that it isn’t what you want. You’ll miss your hook-ups and being the town’s most eligible bachelor, and I don’t want to go through the pain that’d cause me.”

“For fuck’s sake, Ellie, how many times? I wouldn’t hurt you.”